[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vlr-page_3835.jpg]][[caption-width-right:300:So, what's it going to be? Will you choose to Ally? Or to Betray?]]

->''Will you prove your virtue and choose "Ally"? Or will you choose "Betray" and send your allies to their last reward?''

'''''Virtue's Last Reward''''' [[note]](''Kyokugen Dasshutsu ADV: Zennin Shibou Desu''; lit. ''"Extreme Escape Adventure: Good People Die / I Want To Be A Good Person"'')[[/note]] is a VisualNovel for the Nintendo3DS and PlaystationVita, the sequel to the DS's ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' and the second game in the ''VisualNovel/ZeroEscape'' series. It was released in February 2012 in Japan, was released October 23rd in America, and November 2012 in Europe, courtesy of Rising Star Games.

An average college student called Sigma awakens inside an elevator, finding himself trapped with a strange girl named Phi who somehow knows him. Working together to escape the room, Sigma and Phi discover that along with seven other victims, they have been kidnapped, trapped inside a large warehouse and forced to play the "Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition" by an [[ArtificialIntelligence A.I. program]] calling itself "Zero III".

As with ''999'', each player has a numbered bracelet attached to their wrist and will be killed if they break the rules. However, the "Ambidex Edition" has a twist: to escape the warehouse, the nine players must accumulate points by splitting into teams of three (further divided into two sub-teams, a duo and a single) and completing deadly challenges. Nine points will grant a player their freedom, but losing all their points will reward a player with death. Reminiscent of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma Prisoner's Dilemma]], a sub-team can choose to betray their partnered sub-team in order to steal points from them, but if both sub-teams choose "Betray" then neither gain anything. Furthermore, the exit door will only open once, regardless of how many players have enough points to leave.

Check out the trailer [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAqGs441qzU here]]. There is also a promo anime for the game over [[http://youtu.be/BqcHlMsJoh4 here]] subtitled, or [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4h4xPoe4w1g here]] dubbed. While the American edition has both Japanese and English voice tracks available, the European edition has only the Japanese voice track.

On February 2014, it was announced that due to low sales, ''VLR'''s sequel was being put on hiatus. Fans have started a [[http://www.facebook.com/operationbluebirdze3 Facebook campaign]] to show support for the series.

Be warned that like ''999'', this game is a minefield of spoilers, so do not read ahead if you're spoiler-averse.----!!Seek a way out!

* AbandonedWarehouse: Where the game takes place this time around.* ACupAngst: Phi tells Sigma she is a C cup. Sigma replies "If you're a C cup then I'm [[BiggerIsBetterInBed packing twelve inches!"]]* AddressingThePlayer: In the "Another Time" epilogue, several characters talk with an unknown conciousness that WordOfGod [[https://twitter.com/uchikoshi/status/270796452878499840 confirmed in a roundabout way]] is the player.* AdultFear:** Quark, a boy ten or so years old, [[spoiler: tries to kill himself in practically every timeline thanks to the mind-altering disease Radical-6, a scene many players find difficult to watch.]]** In a flashback, Quark and Tenmyouji once got into a fight causing the former to run away. Tenmyouji went to search for him and nearly got himself killed due to a fever; had he died, Quark would become an orphan again.* AerithAndBob: The cast includes characters with {{Awesome McCool Name}}s like Sigma, Phi, Quark, Tenmyouji and K [[spoiler:whose real name is Kyle, which isn't an {{Awesome McCool Name}}]]... but also Alice, Luna, and Dio. And unlike the last game, most of the players are ''not'' using fake/code names.* [[spoiler:AfterTheEnd: The game takes place several decades after the [[ThePlague Radical-6 plague outbreak]] and a subsequent world-ending explosions on Earth, which is implied to now be a post-apocalyptic wasteland.]] * AllLoveIsUnrequited: ** [[spoiler:Akane and Junpei]] never wind up together even after being reunited after decades. [[spoiler:(Their love is canon, tho, as stated from K and also from the Q&A) ]]** Though he never returned her feelings, Luna is also hopelessly in love with [[spoiler:Sigma. Luna's login password for the Director's Office is even I LOVE KLIM [[SdrawkcabName spelled backwards]].]]* AlreadyDoneForYou: ** While the player is controlling Sigma, there are usually at least two other teams off solving puzzles and investigating rooms. ** In the path to the GoldenEnding, [[spoiler:Sigma also goes back in time to input the password to the elevator safe so his past self can escape earlier than usual. Phi will actually ''berate'' you if you try to do the puzzle again]].* AlternateUniverse: [[spoiler:Some of the characters suggest time travel works on a "many-worlds" system, meaning the routes in which characters died or went crazy still exist, and even if Dr. Klim stops the Radical-6 incident, the players of this game will still be stuck in their current BadFuture.]]* AltumVidetur: Several Latin phrases make appearances in the game:** Phi's brooch says ''Elapsam semel occasionem non ipse potest Iuppiter reprehendere'' (Not even Jupiter can reclaim a lost opportunity.)** Also spoken by Phi: "''Acta est fabula, plaudite!''" (The play has ended, applaud!)** On the tombstone in the garden: ''Tu fui, ego eris.'' (What you are, I was; what I am, you will be.) An English variation is also found in the security room's computer; "I was you,; you will be me."** ''Memento mori'' (Remember death) is part of the message on the wall of the Floor B warehouse.** The journal found in the Laboratory is entirely written in Latin. Most of the characters can't read it, but Phi is able to translate one important passage.* AlwaysClose: For some reason, Sigma almost always feels he needs to wait until the last second to input his AB Game vote. [[spoiler:Sigma eventually exploits this to realize other characters are inexplicably changing their cooperate/betray decisions depending entirely on what he chose.]]* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Since the game has multiple endings based on past choices, you're going to want to revisit those previously played portions of the game to see them all. The "Flow" chart allows you to instantly jump to any previously played pivotal point in the game, such as when choosing "Ally" or "Betray" in an AB Game. Jumping back to past moments also means having to go through several minutes of dialogue again, but the game alleviates the tediousness by giving the player two extra dialogue options: AUTO which plays dialogue at normal speeds and keeps going without player input. And SKIP which blazes through the dialogue at lightning speeds, turning 20 minutes of spoken dialogue into 20 seconds. A bonus for the SKIP option; it only skips previously played dialogue depending on the situation. For example: Depending on if someone was betrayed or allied, their subsequent dialogue will change, but much of the in between dialogue from other characters is the same no matter what. So the SKIP option will only blaze through the "generic" dialogue and return to normal speed at the "new" dialogue.* {{Antimatter}}: [[spoiler:Antimatter rockets figure in the Mars mission backstory, and the world was devastated after 18 antimatter generator plants were detonated in 2029. The bombs Dio plants also use antimatter charges.]]* ArcNumber: Like in the first game, the numbers 3 and 9 are all over the place.** There are various 9s in the game's rules** There are nine images of a lion eating the sun.* ArcWelding: The in-game secret files reveal that [[spoiler:Gentarou Hongou, aka Ace, was a member of Free the Soul, and that Cradle Pharmaceutical and his experiments with the morphogenetic field were funded by the cult. The symbol on the robes Snake was forced to wear in 999 is also used as Free the Soul's coat of arms.]]* ArcWords: ** "Memento mori, If the nineth (sic) lion ate the sun." [[spoiler:It's instructions for Sigma to use the ID and password he gained from K and Luna's deaths in previous timelines when he sees the ninth image of "a lion eating the sun" in order to gain access to the Director's office]].*** [[spoiler:Actually the ninth image would be the computer in the Q room, where you had to use the ID and password from a card off Akane's body. So specifically the death here would be hers.]]** The phrase itself is also an anagram of the true arc phrase - [[spoiler:"The man on the moon rules the infinite time."]]** "Tu fui, ego eris." ("I was you, you will be me.") [[spoiler:A message from Zero Sr. to Sigma, hinting at his true identity.]]* ArtificialHuman: ** [[spoiler:The real K is a clone of Sigma.]]** [[spoiler:Dio is a fourth generation clone of Left, the dead sibling of the enigmatic leader of Free the Soul.]]** [[spoiler:Luna is a GAULEM, essentially an android.]]* ArtShift: The first part of the "END or BEGINNING" epilogue uses the same art style from 999. It's also used during [[spoiler:Tenmyouji's despair over Akane's transmission ending, foreshadowing who he truly is.]]* AuthorAppeal: The secret files in the Crew Quarters imply that Sigma's obsession with swimsuits is derived from the story's author. There are also a few promotional images for the game of [[http://i.imgur.com/IantD.jpg Phi]], [[http://i.imgur.com/fp4dz.jpg Clover]], and [[http://i.imgur.com/XGeBj.jpg Luna]] in swimsuits.* [[spoiler:BadFuture: A massive portion of the human race died and Earth was plunged into nuclear winter following the outbreak of Radical-6 and the destruction of the world's eighteen anti-matter power generators on April 13, 2029.]]* BerserkButton: [[spoiler:Every other character will turn on you if you Betray anyone to obtain 9 points outside of one specific ending or appear to be a sleeper agent for Zero.]]* BigBadFriend: One of the 9 players is the mastermind behind the AB game, Zero II. [[spoiler:It turns out that while it is technically Sigma, it's a future version of him, whose body the consciousness of the present day Sigma was inhabiting.]]* BigBadWannabe: [[spoiler:Dio is easily caught of guard and tricked in many of the routes, despite being a terrorist member of Free the Soul there to kill you all.]]* BigEater: Phi stuffs herself when exploring the Pantry with K, [[spoiler:likely because she and the others didn't notice how much time had gone by because their Radical-6 infections slowed their perception of time: Phi hadn't eaten for about a day by then]].* BiggerBad: [[spoiler:Brother, the leader of Free The Soul, is the one [[ManBehindTheMan who sent Dio]] to stop the AB Project from succeeding. However, he only appears in a flashback with his [[TheFaceless face obscured]].]]* BodyHorror: [[spoiler: Sigma has issues with his suddenly, and unexpectedly, prosthetic arms, artificial skin or otherwise, and becomes very worried at he might be a robot without knowing about it. Then when he uses his knowledge of his artificial arms to save himself in another route... by crushing one to a pulp with a massive door. Then with the fact that he's suddenly a 67 year old man with only one eye. And then being back in his 22 year old body... immediately after getting new artificial arms. They have no skin. Considering you can't see Sigma except during specific circumstances... this body horror is reflected upon the player, as well. Sigma's life is full of this.]]** It also has foreshadowing for more body horror: [[spoiler: in at least ''one'' route in the next game, Sigma will lose his arms. Unlike in this game... it's probably going to be shown directly. Likely with screaming.]]* BolivianArmyEnding: Most of the MultipleEndings close on {{Cliffhanger}}s or {{Downer Ending}}s where everyone seems doomed.* BookEnds: ** The game's final escape sequence [[spoiler: is exactly the same as its first, although you don't have to solve any puzzles since you already know the safe password.]]** Much like the end of the first game, one of the player character's last objectives is to [[spoiler:save Akane Kurashiki]].** [[spoiler: At the end of the game when you ask Phi who she is, she gives you the exact same joke/non-answer she gave when she first met Sigma.]]* BrainBleach: Sigma and Alice wish they could forget the sight of a grown man in armour (K) riding a big cute bunny like a little kid.* BreakTheCutie: Clover when [[spoiler: Alice dies.]] She even [[spoiler:threatens to kill everybody. Doesn't this seem familiar?]] * BrickJoke: Checking the safe in the elevator at the beginning will cause Phi to suggest a cracker's inside. When Sigma opens the safe later on in the story, Phi frantically yells "Grab the cracker!" [[spoiler:If you missed it, this is a joke on "safecracker".]]* BrokenAesop: ThePowerOfLove is what saves Akane in the first episode. However, she disappeared right after the events of 999, and [[spoiler:Junpei wastes his entire life looking for her, something he is ''very'' regretful once he finally reunite with June]].* ButThouMust: [[spoiler:You ''have'' to go back and create a timeline where you Betray Phi after being told you did earlier in her route. Even Sigma is utterly baffled by being forced to select "Betray".]]** In the "Golden" timeline, Phi berates the player repeatedly for hitting the start button in the AB room, and locking them both in there for 40 minutes. The player has no option in doing otherwise.* CallBack: ** [[spoiler:The final puzzle door that you go through has a "Q" on it, just like the last door in the first game. Q is a homonym for 9 (Kyu) in Japanese.]]--->'''Tenmyouji''': Well, now someone's just being a smartass.** Clover mentions the rumor from the first game that Alice's body water is made of Ice-9, which Alice dismisses as completely absurd.** Upon finding a monitor, Alice concludes that the CPU must be in the monitor. Which is exactly what Lotus of the previous game said an ignorant person would do.** Sigma tricks [[spoiler:Dio into spilling the beans about being the leader of the Myrmidons by pretending to be from Free the Soul, in a manner similar to Junpei tricking Ace in the first game.]]** Being separated from Clover by a glass partition and telling her to do things so you can be reunited.** The protagonist watching Clover crawl under things (a computer in the previous game, a desk in this one).** The depowered computer in the GAULEM Bay and the disconnected computer in the Laboratory in the previous game. In fact, these two locations share more than a few similarities, including but not limited to Lotus's lecture on our perception of brain functions getting expanded upon by [[spoiler:G-OLM's]] Chinese Room explanation.** The first time veteran Zero Escape players will see a "TO BE CONTINUED", nostalgia (and possibly frustration) will ensue.** Zero's gas mask. [[spoiler: Unsurprising, considering Akane is actively contributing to Dr. Klim's Project AB.]]* ChildrenAreInnocent: Quark is pretty much the only one not scheming in some way, [[spoiler:even though he's a kid raised in a post-apocalyptic wasteland]].* CliffHanger: Most storyline paths will cut to "TO BE CONTINUED" at a particularly tense moment partway through until you collect critical information from other routes.** [[spoiler: The game ends just as Sigma and Phi are about to begin their mission to infiltrate the Nevada air force base; a base laden with booby-traps, one of which cost Sigma his eye and both his arms in his previous attempt.]]* CloningBlues: Averted. ** [[spoiler:Dio is pretty happy about being a clone of the leader of Free the Soul's dead brother.]]** [[spoiler:K only has issues with his "father" Sigma's ParentalNeglect, he couldn't care less he's a clone of the man.]]* [[spoiler: CoversAlwaysLie:]] Inverted: [[spoiler: The cover shows Sigma with a glowing green eye and wild gray hair.. A.k.a his actually appearance in-game. The cover is spoiling the game without you ''even knowing it!'']]* CrapsackWorld: [[spoiler:A virus has annihilated most of humanity, forcing the rest into underground shelters during the short time between the prologue and the beginning of the game]]* CulturalTranslation: The original script contained Japanese cultural terminology, humor and even vocal quirks, leading translators to completely change a great deal of references, idioms and puns in the English version. For instance, The Japanese title of the game has a DoubleMeaning that literally translates as "Good People Die" / "I Want To Be A Good Person". The translated title changes this to an English only idiom with a slightly different DoubleMeaning, "Virtue's Last Reward".* CyanidePill: [[spoiler:Dio uses a suicide pill to kill himself in the Alice Ending so no one can stop the bombs he planted.]]** [[spoiler:He attempts it in the Sigma and Phi routes, but gets stopped by Sigma before he manages to use it.]]* DeadlineNews: In the (first) epilogue, we see a newscaster reporting [[spoiler: the horrible extent to which the Radical-6 virus has spread]] before [[spoiler: succumbing to it and killing herself]].* DeadManSwitch: A Free the Soul terrorist uses a switch that sets off a number of bombs he planted on 30-minute delay if the device is ever more than a meter away from him. [[spoiler:The terrorist, Dio, uses it as insurance if he fails to kill everyone in the AB game himself.]]* DenserAndWackier: Denser and Weirder, anyway. [[spoiler:Characters include Androids, clones in PoweredArmor, A 22 year old man in a 67 year old man's body, a secret agent dressed like an egyptian princess, and so on.]]* DerailedForDetails: [[spoiler:The nameless Gaulem]] while explaining the Chinese Room experiment, frequently adds racy details.* DiedInYourArmsTonight: ** [[spoiler:Luna happily dies in Sigma's arms in the ending of her route.]]** [[spoiler:If you fail to disarm bomb's 1-3 in Phi's route, Phi dives into Sigma's arms as he promises Phi that they will meet again.]]-->'''Sigma:''' [[IWillFindYou We'll meet again. Somewhere, somewhen.]] I guarantee it. [[spoiler:We can jump through parallel worlds!]] We can change history! You see?! This won't end here! I won't let it! This is just the beginning!* DirtyOldMan:** Tenmyouji openly discusses "Grandpa Videos" and "Erotic Units" with Quark. ** [[spoiler:Sigma is also a 22 year old college kid's mind in a 67 year old man's body, which explains a lot about how other characters react to his perversions: As a college kid, it would be unsurprising. As an old man with wild hair and a prosthetic eye? It's downright creepy.]]* DoorClosesEnding: In certain endings/game overs where one or more player gets nine BP then you get to see the number nine door close slowly with a groan.* DramaticUnmask:** K's mask is removed in K's ending.** [[spoiler:K's mask is removed again in Phi's ending. It's still surprising because there's a different person behind it than the first time.]]* DrivenToSuicide: A virus is present that causes those infected with it to become suicidally insane.* DwindlingParty:** Most routes have more and more people turning up dead until there's practically no one left.** [[spoiler: In Clover's Ending, ''all'' the characters die due to Radical-6.]]* EasterEgg: Several hidden messages can be accessed on the phone in the Crew Quarters by using the numbers [[spoiler:6969, 5309, 3141, and 8008]].** The passwords used to [[spoiler: deactivate the bombs]] are actually coded messages. [[spoiler: Replace each letter with the one that comes immediately after it in the alphabet to decipher them.]]* EasyModeMockery: When you switch to Easy mode, your partners will offer you hints for the puzzles. If you do really poorly, they tend to get rather hilariously annoyed at you.* ElaborateUndergroundBase: The setting for this Nonary Game, complete with a lounge, rec room and infirmary. [[spoiler:It's also on the moon.]]** Justified in that [[spoiler:Sigma and Akane had to live in it for decades while it and the nonary game were being built.]]* EnhanceButton: While looking at security footage at one point, you're able to inexplicably zoom in and clearly see the numbers on a character's bracelet. Probably justified by being built, at the earliest, in the year 2028, where screen resolution should be pretty immense, especially for a highly sophisticated security system.* EverybodysDeadDave: [[spoiler:In Luna's and Clover's route everybody dies but Sigma, Quark (who is missing), in Clover's route, K (assuming he didn't find a way to kill himself off-screen) and in Luna's route, Phi. It also turns out the Radical-6 pandemic has killed off most of Earth's population.]]* [[spoiler:EverybodyLives]]: [[spoiler:In the GoldenEnding, every single named character survives the ordeal, [[AMillionIsAStatistic even if most of humanity doesn't.]]]]* EvolvingCredits: Characters like the the detective who sets up the prisoners' dilemma in one route and the Old Woman only appear in the credits of routes where they have a speaking role.* ExactTimeToFailure: The watch timers start at the exact same time as the clock on [[spoiler:Dio's bombs]] by pure coincidence.* ExpressiveMask: The eyes on K's armor change to reflect his mood.* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Spoken word by word by [[spoiler: Akane]]: "Anima is another word for the soul or the consciousness. Body is well, ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin."* FairPlayWhodunnit: The file "Knox's Ten Commandments" lists author Ronald Knox's ten rules for writing detective fiction, only for the game gleefully break every single one of those rules. At best, you can use some of the rules as hints for a few of the game's mysteries.** ''Virtue's Last Reward'' breaks the ''letter'' of every single rule while upholding the ''spirit'' of the rules. The intent behind Knox's list is so that writers don't perform an AssPull by coming up with impossible crap that wasn't foreshadowed or alluded to, just to get themselves out of corners they wrote themselves into. In ''VLR'', MagicAIsMagicA. Even the weirdest stuff is fully explained and properly foreshadowed.* FakeDifficulty: Well, more like pointless difficulty. You are supposed to play through the rooms on hard with the extra password to get the golden files [[spoiler:and also unlock the GoldenEnding]], but nothing is stopping you from beating the level on easy, then just going back and using the same password at the beginning of the level.* FinalExamBoss:[[spoiler:The "q" room on the True Phi Path contains all of the most difficult puzzles you've completed in the game as the final test.]]* FlockOfWolves: Of all the players [[spoiler:four actively worked to create the game and four others know who Zero is (or can at least make an educated guess)]]. The only people who are ignorant as they claim are [[spoiler:K and Quark, given that Alice probably knows everything Clover does. And even K only counts because he's amnesiac for most of the timelines]].* FourIsDeath: ** [[spoiler:Clover, the fourth player, threatens to kill everyone in a moment of weakness during Luna and Tenjmouji's path. Everyone also dies in her character ending.]]** [[spoiler:Dio actually planted four anti-matter bombs, not three.]]** [[spoiler:The antimatter generators explode in April, the fourth month. Not only that, but it happens on the [[ThirteenIsUnlucky 13th]] of that month...which is a Friday.]]* {{Foreshadowing}}:** Sigma's VerbalTic. [[spoiler: If the subject becomes about cats he can't refrain from making cat-related puns like "You gotta be kitten me." [[ArtificialIntelligence Zero III]], being a rabbit, is always making similar rabbit-related puns.]]** Involving [[spoiler: Sigma's true appearance]]:*** The cover art has [[spoiler:one of Sigma's eyes glowing and his hair looking oddly gray]]:*** One of Phi's first lines in the game is [[spoiler:"Shut up, grandpa!"]]*** When Sigma tells Phi [[spoiler:he's 22 years old]], Phi shoots back [[spoiler:"You must have done a lot of drugs to look like that at 22."]]*** [[spoiler:In the Lock 3 route, when Dio escapes through the number 9 door he tells Sigma "Just hurry up and die! You senile old fuck!"]]*** Sigma tells the others that he's [[spoiler:a student shooting for a Ph.D.]] Alice responds, [[spoiler:"I guess you've been working on that for quite a while, huh?"]]*** When Sigma goes silent for a moment, Alice shouts [[spoiler:"Hey! Did you have a stroke or something?!"]]*** When get to control Sigma during the Escape segments [[spoiler: the screen looks a lot more low res, like it's on a old television screen, hinting at Sigma's artificial eye.]]** Tenmyouji being [[spoiler: Junpei]]:*** Clover and Tenmyouji repeat the [[CallBack "pipe" joke]].--->'''Clover''': Give me a "P"!\\'''Tenmyouji''': Give me an "I"!\\'''Sigma''': What the hell are you guys doing? *** Tenmyouji's odd way of counting:--->'''Sigma''': 3, 2, 1...\\'''Tenmyouji''': [[spoiler:2, 3, 4...]]*** Tenmyouji asks Alice [[spoiler:if her body water is Ice-9.]]*** When Clover tells Tenmyouji she doesn't want to go through the Chromatic door with him because he's old, he indignantly shouts [[spoiler:"I'll have you know I'm as spry as I was when I was twenty!"]]*** During the first round, when you pair with Alice, he'll say he could never betray Clover.** Quark talks about the time he got something none of the other kids had ever had: a root beer float [[spoiler:hinting at the fact such things barely exist anymore after the apocalypse.]] He also mentions being surprised to learn that one kid he knew had a mom.** [[spoiler: G-OLM]] talks about the Chinese Room, where the player is treated with a picture of a girl trying to decipher letters written in chinese sent to her through the door. The [[spoiler: G-OLM]] then proceeds to compare the Chinese Room story with the [[spoiler: GAULEM]] and how they cannot be told apart from a human being, even if one is right in front of them. The [[spoiler: G-OLM]] utters: "See? Right in the middle of--" before [[spoiler: being deactivated]] as if to prevent it from revealing who was a [[spoiler: GAULEM]]. Now, look at the girl from the Chinese Room story. Doesn't she look a bit like [[spoiler: Luna?]].** A SchrodingersCat book is found early on in the game.** Zero III refers to Clover as "Cleaver" [[spoiler:a nickname only Akane could still know, hinting at her involvement in the newest Nonary Game.]]** The graffiti found in the warehouse. *** "Memento mori, If the nineth (sic) lion ate the sun." [[spoiler:anagram: "The man on the moon rules the infinite time."]]*** "Two milkmen, go comedy." [[spoiler:anagram: "welcome to my kingdom.", "Two Klim men."]]** When Dio asks about the second way to remove the bracelets, Zero [[spoiler: replies "I think you already know." in a sinister voice. He, in fact, ''does'' know, since his mission was to kill Akane, retrieve her bracelet, and use it to win the game.]]** One of the security room's messages is "She knows everything." [[spoiler:This foreshadows Phi's knowledge of her and Sigma's mission. It also indicates Zero's gender]].** TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: The "memo" feature is called "Brain Memory." It allows you to store data, hand written onto the screen. One easily-overlooked "feature" of Brain Memory is that every time you jump, the information in there gets more and more distorted, and if you save information on the screen across enough jumps it may become unreadable. [[spoiler:This is because, although Sigma has photographic memory, he loses information when he jumps.]]* FunWithAcronyms: GAULEM stands for "General-purpose [=AUtonomous=] Labor Electronic Machine." [[spoiler:G-OLM]] [[LampshadeHanging opines]] that the full name is silly and the creators probably just wanted an acronym that sounded like "{{Golem}}."* GameBreakingBug: In both the 3DS & Vita versions, some of the puzzle rooms like the Pressure Exchange Chamber can freeze up the system, forcing a hard reset. If you save your game in a room when it glitches, your whole save file can become corrupted too. Luckily, the second part can be avoided by only saving during the novel portions of the game.* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Parodied in the green door. Examining objects in the workshop enough times results in Alice having to slap Sigma... [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext to stop him from eating said useless objects]].* GrumpyOldMan: Tenmyouji wants nothing to do with the Nonary game and thinks very little of Zero II's somewhat altruistic goals.* GivingSomeoneThePointerFinger: Sigma in some routes.* GoldenEnding: [[spoiler:Phi's True End, which is reached by clearing almost every other path in the game. In it, Akane is saved, the bombs are successfully defused, Dio is captured, and everyone survives.]]* HairRaisingHare: Zero III, a creepy digital rabbit avatar who facilitates the events of the life and death Nonary Game this time around.* HumanPopsicle: Cryogenic freezing exists, and can be used to preserve victims of disease until they can be properly treated. [[spoiler:It's also used to get Clover, Alice and Phi into the Nonary Game without worrying about them dying from Radical-6 or old age.]]* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:In one route, Dio gets impaled through the chest by K when K finds out Dio killed Akane.]]* INeverSaidItWasPoison: [[spoiler:In Sigma's route, Dio angrily insists that he doesn't know anything about '''who''' the Myrmidons are, nor '''some old fart''' named Brother, despite Sigma not saying anything about the Myrmidons being people or Brother's age.]]* InfantImmortality: Quark is the only character who you will never explicitly see dead.* InterfaceSpoiler: The player can call up the flowchart of events at any time and see which decisions lead to new scenes. However, the GoldenEnding [[spoiler:and the white chromatic doors]] don't appear on the flowchart until the player unlocks them.** Getting the Gold Files early will reveal concepts before they are explained in the game.* IronicEcho: Dio at one point defends himself [[spoiler:after saying Quark is likely dead]] by stating "What? I'm just saying it's a possibility. Don't get so worked up about it." Later on, when Phi accuses Dio [[spoiler:of killing Alice and Luna]], she retorts to his objections with "What? I'm just saying it's a possibility. Don't get so worked up about it" too.** Whenever Sigma opens a door with Phi in the group, she says, "You don't have to ask me when you're opening the door". Sigma returns the favour when Phi opens the 9 door [[spoiler:on Luna's route]].* KnockoutGas: As in 999, Zero used traps and grenades containing an aerosol version of the liquid drug in each player's bracelets, Soporil, to incapacitate and capture each victim.* KillEmAll: Everyone dies in a number of the game over scenarios in Phi's route, [[spoiler:Clover, Alice and Sigma's routes end with everyone dead as well.]]* KillerRabbit: Though Zero III appears as a cute little bunny avatar, he still has the power to kill you if you don't follow the Nonary Game's rules.* LampshadedDoubleEntendre-->'''Sigma''': Clover, try pulling that lever.\\'''Clover''': Why do I have to do it?\\'''Sigma''': It might be dangerous. I was hoping you could just wrap your hands around it and give it a good jerk. It is kinda big, but I'm sure you can handle it. Just...be gentle.\\'''Clover''': Uh... This doesn't seem like appropriate workplace behaviour. You're kinda grossing me out.\\'''Sigma''': I know you probably still think of yourself as just a girl, but you've become a woman some-\\'''Clover''': You're not making it any better! Why don't you do it?!\\'''Sigma''': If you can't take it, then maybe Luna can. Have you done this before? You just start at the base and work your way up, then give it a good tug once you get to the top.\\'''Luna''': ...Wh-What?\\'''Clover''': What is wrong with you?! If you're so desperate to give that lever a good time why don't you do it yourself! Just leave me and Luna out of your sick fantasies, you creep!\\'''Sigma''': Hmph. Fine. But I won't like it.\\'''Clover''': Oh...\\'''Luna''': One of the doors opened. Hmm, we might as well go through it.\\'''Sigma''': Maybe we should try flipping it one more time, though... I think you could actually manage with just one hand, Clover. Just do it real fast, it'll only take one second. Just up and down once...\\'''Clover''': Ugh. You are disgusting.* LateArrivalSpoiler: Somebody who is currently playing 999 and sees the promotional art for VLR can probably assume that Clover survives the first game, and isn't the original Zero.* LeftHanging: [[spoiler:Akane can't and Phi won't tell you what happened in the Mars Simulation incident that caused the outbreak of Radical-6, making it a SequelHook for the third game in the series.]]* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: [[spoiler:In the "Another Time END" epilogue, you play as an unknown consciousness in Kyle's body that Akane and Phi seem to imply actually is the player of 999 and VLR.]]* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: Alice's reaction to the sight of K riding the coin-operated kiddie ride in the rec room.* LighterAndSofter: The sequel is less gory than its predecessor, with the bracelets injecting a poison instead of making people blow up, and overall there is far less endings which end up in a total slaughter. WordOfGod revealed that the higher ups gave him the order to make the sequel more light [[http://virtueslastreward.com/qahome/ (question n°71 of the Q&A)]], since they believed the scary and gory nature of 999 led to the poor sales of the title. WordOfGod also reveals that he was ''not'' happy about being forced to tone down these aspects of the game. [[spoiler: The bleakness of the setting may be a part of that.]]* LookBehindYou: Phi tells Dio something is behind him and then runs for the elevator by herself to keep him out of the AB room. [[spoiler:Dio actually falls for it.]]* MagicalDefibrillator: Sort of. While it's not used, examining the AED in the infirmary has the characters comment it's used to restart a stopped heart. [[spoiler:Which is probably why Sigma elects to have his arm cut off by the number nine door instead of running for it to stop his heart early and thus get his about-to-kill-him bracelet off in Quark's ending.]]* MegaNeko: The star-eating lion motif.* MeaningfulName: ** In mathematics, the Greek letter sigma is used to denote "summation", hinting at Sigma's ability to accumulate memories from alternate timelines. ** "K" is a standard "placeholder" variable used in summation functions [[spoiler:hinting at the real K's identity as Sigma's clone "son"]].** Phi is another Greek letter; of its many uses in math, the most notable is standing for the empty set.[[note]]Okay, okay, the symbol Ř isn't REALLY a phi (it's derived from the Scandinavian slashed O), but they're very similar. Older math books sometimes used phi for ease of typesetting.[[/note]] [[spoiler:Phi remains a total mystery even in the true ending. The author rubs it in on the Answers page: when asked "Could you give us hints about Phi?", he simply answers "Φ".]]* MentalTimeTravel: [[spoiler:Phi and Sigma can both transfer their conciousnesses into the past and future. Training them to use this ability is the entire point behind the new Nonary Game.]]* MindScrewdriver: This game does give a far less crazy explanation for apparent ancient Egyptian princess Alice catching a ride with you at the end of 999. [[spoiler:She's actually just a Department of Defense anti-terrorism agent with odd taste in clothing.]]* MoonwalkDance: Sigma at one point gets asked by Phi to demonstrate her point by taking some random action, in which the player can choose to clap, wave, or dance (among other choices). If the player chooses "moonwalk," she tells him he's doing it wrong. * MultipleEndings: There are 22 different endings:** END: 9 "True Ends" for each character route, with Phi's serving as the [[OmegaEnding Final True End]].** GAME OVER: 11 NonstandardGameOver "Bad Ends" divided up among each of the 9 routes.** END or BEGINNING: An epilogue unlocked after the [[OmegaEnding Final True End]] where Sigma talks with [[spoiler:Young!Akane on the day the world ended 45 years ago.]]** Another Time END: A SequelHook epilogue unlocked after clearing every puzzle room on Hard [[spoiler:Where an unknown conciousness in Kyle Klim's body talks with Old!Akane about the Mars testing facility incident.]]* MusicalNod: Multiple occasions.** The themes of this ("Virtue's Last Reward" and "Virtue's Last Reward ~ Piano") and the previous ("Morphogenetic Sorrow" and "9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors") games use the same core melody.** The first room you have to escape in both games is virtually the same track ("Unary Game" vs "Ambidexterity"). * MusicBoxIntervals: ''Blue Bird Lamentation'' both starts and ends with just a music box playing.* MysticalWhiteHair: Phi. [[spoiler:It turns out she shares Sigma's ability to jump across worlds.]]* MysteriousWaif: Phi, again. Even following her path and the epilogue reveal very little about her or her life outside the game, and there's been no supplementary info about her, either. In fact, following her path is the only way to get the true ending, and requires all the other endings first.* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:Dio never triggers the bombs on his own accord, and Tenmyouji even bluffs him out of doing it in multiple ending paths. They only go off on a [[DeadManSwitch automatic timer]] once the party takes the detonator away from him.]]* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler:The bombs would go off in every timeline if Dio didn't insist on giving away one of the passcodes to taunt you.]]* NobodyPoops: Nobody seems to get hungry or need to use the bathroom during the course of the game, [[spoiler: even though the final ending reveals that they've actually spent 36 straight hours playing under the effects of Radical-6]].* NoBiologicalSex: The [=GAULEMs=] don't have sexual characteristics, if their metal frames stored in the bay are any indication. However, they do appear to have personality genders. [[spoiler:Luna seems to identify as female, probably due to her initial programming.]]* NoodleIncident: Pretty much everything that happens at the Mars Mission Test Site in Nevada.* NonStandardGameOver: The 11 GAME OVER "Bad End" outcomes. Failing to solve certain puzzles in Alice, Phi, and Sigma's route also results in smaller non-standard game over scenes. * NumberTwo: [[spoiler:Dio, the leader of the Myrmidons and [[JustForPun "Left"]] hand man of the BiggerBad, Brother.]]* OffModel: [[spoiler:During Sigma's face reveal, the reflection of his face on the pond has his artificial eye on the wrong eye. While the artificial eye is supposed to be on Sigma's right eye, the reflection should look like it's on his left eye.]]* ObviouslyEvil: Dio is a scumbag, votes "Betray" at every opportunity, and it becomes clear he's done something heinous the longer the game goes on. [[spoiler:As it turns out, he's a terrorist member of Free the Soul, and he either killed Akane or he planted bombs all over the facility to kill everyone.]] * OddNameOut: Any mythological references in the game are always Roman...[[http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/641334-zero-escape-virtues-last-reward/65440097 except]] for the Greek name of Hephaestus Industries [[note]]A company mentioned in the Golden Files; the GAULEMS' original creators[[/note]].* OmegaEnding: In order to get the Final True Ending you need: [[spoiler:the codes from the Dio, Tenmyouji, Sigma, and Alice paths to defuse all four bombs; the ID card from Quark's path to solve the one-headed lion mystery of room Q. Plus you need to have seen Phi's bad ending once to break Lock 08, Alice's ending to break Lock 09, and Luna's ending to break Lock 10. To get Luna's ending, you also need to have gotten key #1 from Sigma's path and key #2 from K's path to solve a two-headed lion mystery. To get Sigma's ending, you need to have gotten the Alice ending, which in turn requires the Dio ending, and to get K's ending you need to have gotten Clover's.]]* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Zero II, who is a researcher of genetics, robotics, cloning, AI systems and more.* OneCharacterMultipleLives: [[spoiler:The very point of the entire AB Game]].* OnceAnEpisode: In nearly every storyline:** [[spoiler:Quark gets sick with Radical-6 and needs to be sedated, or goes missing.]]** [[spoiler:Alice allies in the first round and gets betrayed and succumbs to Radical-6 and kills herself. Even if you stop her, she'll burst into the room and kill herself later on anyway.]]** [[spoiler:Akane gets killed. Preventing this re-occuring event eventually becomes a major plot point.]]* OntologicalMystery: As before, nine strangers are dumped in a series of puzzle rooms for no apparent purpose, in a game that could very well kill them all. Even ''999'' players will be stumped as to the purpose of this Nonary Game (even Clover, in-universe), because the ones who set up the last Nonary Game already achieved all their goals. Nobody's even sure what it's like outside the building, where the building is, or what day or time it is.* ThePlague: [[spoiler:Radical-6, which makes those infected with it become suicidally insane.]]* PlayingThePlayer: [[spoiler:The main twist reveals that the player's ability to explore story branches is actually an ability Sigma has.]]** [[spoiler:Sigma being an old man for the bulk of the game is a big one aimed at Japanese gamers. The creator lamented quite a bit in interviews that he couldn't use more mature characters as player characters because Japanese gamers having in his opinion a rather narrow-minded look at what makes a good player character. He even mentioned at least once that he had intended the characters to be older in 999. Is it really surprising that he pulled this kind of twist?]]* PosthumousCharacter: The Old Woman you find dead early on in the game ends up featuring heavily in the story [[spoiler:as she turns out to be K's mother figure, one of the main facilitators of newest game, and Akane / June / Zero from 999. Sigma also ends up preventing her death in the path to the GoldenEnding.]]* PowerofTrust: If everybody just committed to trusting each other and always chose Ally, everybody would be able to leave after playing 3 rounds of the AB game. [[spoiler: This actually happens in the last 3 rounds of the AB game in Phi's ending, which allows everybody but Dio to escape.]]* PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo: Returning characters from [[VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors 999]] include Clover, Alice, [[spoiler: Tenmyouji (Junpei) and the Old Woman (Akane).]]* PungeonMaster: ** Sigma and Phi take turns doing this to one another, mostly just to annoy each other.** Zero III goes out of his way to work in a rabbit or vegetable-related pun in every sentence.** Sigma has a compulsion to make cat puns when talking about felines.* PsychicPowers: They exist, and their users are called Espers. Their powers work by interfacing with the Morphogenetic field, a form of 4th dimension.** Clover [[spoiler:and Temnyouji]] has Telepathy through a [[PsychicLink mental link]], Phi and [[spoiler:Sigma]] [[SaveScumming can jump between parallel timelines]], and [[spoiler:Akane has foresight.]]* RedHerring: A number of potential solutions for Plot-Lock 3 are shown in other timelines, including [[spoiler:using the cryogenic pods and tinfoil to remove the bracelets, using a defibrillator in the facility, or finding the injection gun that can counteract the poison in the bracelets.]] The actual solution comes from [[spoiler:learning that Sigma has robotic arms.]]** Even with the interruption, GOL-M's words imply there's a robot among the players, it's pretty easy to suspect [[spoiler: Sigma after seeing his white blood, Phi with her amazing jumping skills and K who never shows his face.]] However, all of those suspicions are wrong.* ReligionOfEvil: [[spoiler:Free The Soul is a religious cult that is responsible for the outbreak of Radical-6, a virus that effectively wiped out most of the human race and sent the world into an apocalyptic future, and sent Dio to kill everyone involved with the AB Project.]]* [[spoiler:RetroactivePrecognition: As in the first game, this is the only way the protagonists can succeed, although we [[MagicAIsMagicA learn more about it this time]]]].* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: [[spoiler:Luna is a GAULEM who looks and has emotions just like a normal human.]]* [[spoiler:RoboticReveal]]:[[spoiler:Luna, just after the lock on her path. Also subverted in the Sigma ending - he turns out to be a human with cybernetic arms.]]* RunningGag: Zero III being referred to as a rodent, either to his face (whereupon he'll say "I'm a rabbit") or not (whereupon Sigma will correct them.)* SadisticChoice: [[spoiler:In Alice's route, you have to choose whether to give Quark or Alice your ''one dose'' of Radical-6 cure, Axelavir, before they kill themselves. Unless you've found the replicator in the Laboratory, in which case Sigma can TakeAThirdOption and save them both.]]* SamusIsAGirl: [[spoiler:In Sigma, Alice, and Phi's routes, Akane is the one in K's masculine looking armor.]]* SaveScumming: A form of this forms a key gameplay mechanic and plot point.* SchoolSwimsuit: In the Japanese version, Sigma's swimsuit obsession is actually a ''school'' swimsuit obsession. Presumably this is due to AuthorAppeal.* SchrodingersCat: Discussed. Very late in the game, [[spoiler:Akane is explicitly referred to as such.]]* SchrodingersGun: Used and discussed. [[spoiler:A few characters inexplicably change their cooperate/betray decisions depending on what the player chooses at the same time. After a while, ''Sigma starts to notice this'' as you replay sections. This is eventually used to open a scenario lock, as seeing the Game Over where you betray Phi and she cooperates is what's needed to stop her from leaving in the alternate choice where you cooperate and she betrays you.]]** [[spoiler:Sigma himself is subjected to the Schrodinger's Cat effect: he is forced to remove his memory of his past in order to make dramatic changes to his future.]]* SchrodingersQuestion: Applies to the game of rock paper scissors you have with Phi before the first AB game against Tenmyouji.* SdrawkcabName: [[spoiler:Luna's login password for the Director's Office is MIL KEV OLI. It's "I LOVE KLIM" backwards; it turns out Sigma's future self's last name is Klim, and Luna has unrequited romantic feelings for him.]]* {{Seers}}: [[spoiler:Sigma, and Phi to a lesser degree, thanks to their MentalTimeTravel abilities.]]* SequelEscalation: ''Virtue's Last Reward'' is 3 to 4 times the length as ''999'', has nearly 5 times as many endings, more unique story branches, a deadlier Nonary game, much bigger stakes behind it, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and character voice-acting.]]* SequelHook: [[spoiler:The game ends with Akane asking ''you'' to help Sigma and Phi finally prevent the incident at the "trap filled" Nevada Mars Test Site that caused the Radical-6 virus outbreak.]]* [[spoiler:SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: The ultimate goal of the AB Project Nonary Game is to fully awaken Sigma and Phi's MentalTimeTravel abilities so that they can stop the outbreak of Radical-6 in the past.]]* ShipSinking: This game shows [[spoiler:in the timeline Sigma and Phi failed to stop the Radical-6 outbreak, Junpei and Akane]] never end up together.** WordOfGod has explicitly stated that Sigma and Phi will never be in a romantic relationship.* ShmuckBait: [[spoiler: Think you can safely vote after your opponent is put to sleep with Soporil due to their Radical-6 going haywire? Especially if you have 1 BP left? Surely you can just choose "ally", right? Well...]]* ShoutOut** Calling that number 5309 on the Crew Quarter's phone connects you to a girl named Jenny, in a reference to the 1981 Tommy Touone singe ''867-5309 / Jenny''.** Planet Liquor? --> Phi: [[HardDrinkingPartyGirl *Drool*.]] [[WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers But with our powers combined.]]** Two of the factors in determining if you are a gentleman in the "Gentlepoints" secret file are [[ProfessorLayton "number of top hats owned" and "number of puzzles solved"]].** If you call Phi a second time in the Crew Quarters, she answers [[Film/GoodBurger "Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger."]]** If you examine the billiard poster, Alice will ask about a children's show where [[Anime/DragonBall the main characters gather magic balls and make a wish.]]** Examining several beakers in the laboratory will eventually make Sigma go, [[TheMuppets "meep meep meep."]]** Also in the laboratory, Dio will refer to a dead frog as an "ex-frog", much like how John Cleese referred to a certain [[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus "parrot"]].** According to the game's editor, [[WordOfGod Ben Bateman]], [[spoiler: he purposely renamed the the model numbers of the Gaulems]] with references to MyLittlePony.** Luna, the most optimistic of the cast, has a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebird_of_happiness bluebird]] necklace.** When interrogating [[spoiler:Dio about the bomb's deactivation codes]] in Sigma's ending line, Sigma will [[Franchise/AceAttorney thrust his arm out like a certain spiky-haired lawyer]], and then retort how it "isn't a court" when his target refuses to comply.** After [[spoiler:Akane orders Zero Jr. to remove her bracelet]], he replies, "Compliance!" similar to Max from ''Film/FlightOfTheNavigator''.** When Sigma goes down to Warehouse B and Phi [[StealthHiBye sneaks up behind him]], Sigma asks her if she's Franchise/{{Batman}}.** After Phi says all the diferent "men" she isn't she concludes with "I am no man" and then calls Sigma "witch king" Eowyn makes the same statement right before killing the witch king in [[TheLordOfTheRings ''The Return of the King'']]** Two of the Vita trophies are called [[spoiler: "Who [[ZeroWing set up us the bomb]]", part 1 and A.]]** Clover's outfit is a "sexy costume" version of the outfit worn by the teenage [[TheFlintstones Pebbles Flintstone]], complete with hair bone.* [[spoiler:SpaceBase: The final ending reveals that the base the Nonary Game takes place in is on the moon. The red "moon" in the sky is actually the post-calamity Earth.]]* SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler:Dio]] aspires to be this to the AB game. [[spoiler:Too bad for him that not only is he expected, but his presence is actually required.]]* SolveTheSoupCans: JustifiedTrope. [[spoiler:The purpose of the Nonary Game is to strengthen your mental powers, nothing better for that than some life and death mental exercises!]]* {{Stripperiffic}}: Clover's outfit [[BareYourMidriff shows off her entire midriff]], while Alice is wearing [[VaporWear nothing above the waist]] but a jacket and a large Egyptian necklace.** The former's outfit is apparently largely like that BECAUSE of Alice, as Clover aspires to be like her.* SuddenlyVoiced: In Another Timeline, the PlayerCharacter suddenly has full voice acting, [[spoiler:your first sign that you're no longer playing as Sigma.]]* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Luna, the orange-haired woman, shares a lot of mannerisms with Akane, while Phi looks a lot like a gender-bent Santa. Alice is also a mysterious {{Stripperiffic}} woman like Lotus, K is an amnesiac like Seven, and Dio wears a princely getup like Snake.* TakeAThirdOption: [[spoiler:You can do this on Alice's route, but only if you've previously escaped from the Laboratory at least once in Quark's route. Specifically, both Alice and Quark catch Radical-6, a disease that eventually makes its victims commit suicide. A bottle of Axelavir is discovered that can cure it, but there's only enough for either Alice or Quark, but not both. For a moment it looks like you have to choose who will live and who will die...until Sigma suddenly "remembers" that the laboratory has an IG Replicator that can replicate Immunoglobin, which in turn can be used to manufacture a second dose of Axelavir so you can save both Alice ''and'' Quark.]]* TalkingIsAFreeAction: Mostly averted. Sometimes it's stretched, a bit, for example, the Number Nine door is only supposed to be open for nine seconds but sometimes the character leaving gets a bit longer than that to monologue. However, in any other given time-sensitive situation, the characters will often be racing against the clock and a few times it turns out that having a conversation during a countdown is a ''bad idea.'' [[spoiler: One ending, where Sigma gets a medical examination from Luna right in the middle of searching for a bomb...only gives him enough time to confirm his medical status before everyone explodes.]]* [[spoiler:TemporalParadox: Subverted, according to WordofGod. It seems that technically, the deactivation code for Bomb #01 doesn't really originate from anywhere because Dio never tells it to anyone, but Zero Sr. does, and Zero Sr. is Sigma, meaning he would learn from "himself". What actually happened is that Akane hacked Bomb #01 and changed its password, which is how Zero Sr. knew of it. Incidentally (refer to EasterEgg), the password for that bomb is one letter away from the name of Akane's organization.]]* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler:Akane]] is acutely aware of the fact that some of the game's timelines will result in the death of [[spoiler:herself]] and several others.* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: When you solve puzzles by just inputting the passwords without making most of the room, such as in the [[spoiler:Lounge when you're supposed to see the Red Moon, which prompts Phi to elaborate on how this happens, if you solve the room without making use of the globe, she'll suddenly just blurt out information about Lunar Eclipses just before exiting the room, making Sigma and Luna quite confused.]]* TheManyDeathsOfYou: In the various Bad Endings Sigma is poisoned, blown up, kills himself...* ThemeSongReveal: If you haven't figured out the identity of [[spoiler:the old woman]] by the time you finish [[spoiler:Luna]]'s route, the sound of [[spoiler:Morphogenetic Sorrow]] playing over [[spoiler:Luna explaining her orders and the old woman's death]] will tune you in.* ThemeTuneCameo: In the promo anime, Sigma is listening to the game's theme song on the radio when he's kidnapped.* [[spoiler:TheTimeTravellersDilemma: Although the goal of the AB project is to prevent the release of the Radical-6 virus, the timelines in which Sigma and Phi failed to do so still exist. Phi talks to you about it briefly as part of the Multi-World Interpretation, and Tenmyoji and Quark talk about it during the GoldenEnding, and some ethical implications thereof.]]* [[spoiler:TimeyWimeyBall: Akane's explanation of Sigma's necessary time-jumps is more of a Timey-Wimey Diagram; and the end of it splits in two.]]* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler: Double Subverted. At one point Sigma is implied to be a robot after his hand is cut and he begins to bleed white. This is helped by an earlier implication that one of the players is an android. Eventually this is revealed to be false, he just has cybernetic arms. Later, it is revealed that Sigma is Zero, although due to his consciousness travelling through time, he remains unaware until near the end. Within the game, Sigma's face is never actually shown outside of the game's introduction, leading the player to believe that he's a college age student, and not the 67 year old he's shown to be.]]* TomatoSurprise: Numerous facts about the setting are kept from the player, despite many of the characters being aware of them. ** [[spoiler:The plot actually occurs not in December 2028, but 45 years later. Everyone other than Sigma, Clover, Alice, and maybe Phi is aware of this.]]** [[spoiler:The events of the game actually occur on the Moon. About half the cast is aware of this.]]** [[spoiler:Sigma is in the body of a 67 year old man. Everyone other than the player and Sigma is aware of this.]]* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Averted. Unlike the actual game, the promo anime is an entirely non-canon retelling of events by Sigma, [[spoiler:who believes himself to be a 22-year-old college student rather than the 67-year-old man he actually is in the game.]]* TranslationConvention: Even though Clover and Tenmyouji aren't westerners, they don't seem to have trouble communicating with everyone else. Justified in that Clover and Tenmyouji were already fluent in English given their backgrounds.* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The game opens in 2028 and involves issues of [[spoiler:nuclear and biological warfare]] that feature heavily in 21st-century fiction.* UnreliableNarrator: Whoever wrote the secret files often comes across this way, repeatedly joking with the reader and contradicting themselves in a single entry.* VerbalTic: Sigma apparently has one of these. Whenever he sees or starts talking about cats, he starts putting practically every cat-based pun he can into his speech. Yes, it hiss as bad as howl that. The other characters are re-purr-tedly annoyed by it. We're not kitten.* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: A large number of premature bad ends occur if you hit the "betray" lever. On the other hand, there are a couple of times when hitting "betray" is the "right" option (usually when you expect your opponent to also pick "betray," because that protects you from losing points).* ViewersAreGeniuses: This game will expect you to make 2+2 = kumquat a few times with the plot. Even with the secret files, you'll be fitting pieces together to get a full sense of what's going on.* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[ExecutiveMeddling CERO bureaucracy aside]], there were some concepts Uchikoshi didn't/couldn't slip in such as [[spoiler: Dissipative system, Monty Hall problem, Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, Toxoplasmosis, Folie ŕ deux, Capgras delusion, Fregoli delusion, Sally–Anne test, and Project [=MKUltra=]]].* WhamLine:--> [[spoiler: '''Akane''': (to Sigma) Zero, the mastermind of the AB Project... [[TomatoInTheMirror Is you.]]]]** A minor one early in the game:---> '''Luna''': [[spoiler: Quark has an...infection. A viral infection. He's been infected with a virus called [[TheVirus Radical-6]].]]** More like Wham Dialogue, but:---> '''Tenmyouji''': (after they see a circular shadow moving on the surface of the red moon) I meant what I said before: [[spoiler: That up there is the Moon's shadow.]]---> '''Sigma''': What the hell are you saying?---> '''Tenmyouji''': Think about it. If that's [[spoiler: the Moon's shadow]], then what's it falling on?---> '''Phi''': [[spoiler: [[TheReveal That's... Earth?]]]]** This one happens a few seconds later:---> '''Tenmyouji''': [[spoiler: This isn't New Year's Eve in 2028. Today is January 27th.]]---> '''Sigma''': In '29?---> '''Tenmyouji''': No.---> '''Clover''': Don't tell me... '30?---> '''Tenmyouji''': Still no.---> '''Alice''': Then just [[spoiler: what year]] is this?---> '''Tenmyouji''': ...[[spoiler: It's '74. 2074.]] * WellDoneSonGuy: [[spoiler: K (aka Kyle Klim)]] views his relationship with [[spoiler: Sigma]] this way. [[spoiler: Not only is he wrong, he's instrumental to helping his father save the world.]]* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:Akane could easily be seen as one. Even [[WordOfGod Ushikochi]] sometimes talk about her in this manner. She is the explicit mastermind behind every event featured thus far in the playable series, cares very little about casually ruining lives, as well as taking them, when it suits her purposes. She even flat out admits that the people and methods involved in her games matter very little to her and could be achieved in different matters, implying if she cared enough.]]* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: You can visit [[spoiler:the Gaulem Bay]] during a route where you went to another puzzle room instead and see that [[spoiler:G-OLM isn't there]]. There was no explanation for this in game. [[spoiler: [[WordOfGod Ushikochi]] states in the Q&A that he was inside the operation table, and most likely put there by Zero Jr/III.]]* WhatTheHellHero: The other characters ''really'' let you have it if you vote Betray against certain characters, especially the ones that are incapacitated or otherwise unable to vote. [[spoiler:Phi gets so angry at you for Betraying her in one timeline that she decides to screw you over in another... even if you haven't actually done so yet, and even if you only end up betraying her because she betrayed you first, and you're trying to figure out how you can keep her from leaving.]].* WhiteVoidRoom: The final puzzle room you unlock resembles this, at first.* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Quark.* WorldHalfFull: [[spoiler: As bad as Earth is, Tenmyouji does imply that things are slowly getting better. There is a cure for Radical-6, and the nuclear winter is slowly starting to dissipate.]]* YearOutsideHourInside: Radical-6 does this within the body. Moreover, [[spoiler:It is revealed that the entire game took roughly 36 hours instead of the expected 14 or so, and that all the timers were slowed accordingly.]]* YouBastard: [[spoiler: If you're on Clover's route, and you choose "Betray" in Round 2, you'll get a game over, and it plays out like this trope. Specifically, it causes both you and Clover to get 9 BP so you can escape...but in order for that to happen you took advantage of a sedated and thus ''unable-to-vote'' Quark, who thus defaulted to "Ally". This basically means you took advantage of a sick little kid to save yourself. Once it's explained to everyone that you pressed the button and not Clover, everyone gets ''royally pissed off'' at you, and just to punish you for your cowardice, everyone else charges at you at once, and K in particular actually manages to catch up and ''pin you to the ground just so you can't leave'', and Alice shoves Clover out the door so only Clover will escape and get help for everyone.]]** [[spoiler:Any instance where you betray Luna tends to have this tone as well. She ''always'' chooses "ally", and will be utterly heartbroken if you betray her, especially the second time (where she explicitly says she trusts you beforehand) and the third time (where it's a test to see if you still trust her despite her being a robot). The latter instance will lead to her taking the only other survivor and abandoning you in the facility while Zero III berates you for not trusting her.]]* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Phi and Clover. Remarkably, everyone else has realistic hair colours.* YouKilledMyFather: ** [[spoiler:K kills Dio when he realizes Dio killed his mother figure Akane to get into the Nonary game.]]** [[spoiler:Alice's father was kidnapped and eventually killed by the Myrmidons & Free The Soul. She does not take the knowledge that Dio is Left very well]].* YouLoseAtZeroTrust: [[spoiler: In multiple bad endings where you choose Betray, everybody else turns on you because they decide that you are no longer worthy of their trust.]]* YouShouldntKnowThisAlready: Averted; there's nothing stopping you from [[spoiler:logging into Luna's account in the Director's Office and finishing the route]] before you actually get the passwords. This had led to some SequenceBreaking issues from players who weren't familiar with the plot lock mechanics, assumed they were supposed to know the passwords already, and looked them up.* YouWakeUpInARoom: Sigma and Phi wake up in what appears to be an elevator.* ZettaiRyouki: Clover wears thigh high stockings.----''You found it!''----